The Howard Government will introduce its radical second wave IR legislation to Parliament on the morning of next Wednesday, November 2, Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews confirmed this evening.
Andrews says IR bill won't compete with Melbourne Cup; Beazley issues second IR debate challenge; Interim deal for Queensland nurses; and Maitland rejects CFMEU disunity claims.
Employees currently on state awards or agreements could have their wages and conditions frozen for three years or more under the Federal Government's second-wave IR changes, according to a Sydney barrister.
It would make more sense to exclude employers of more than 100 employees from unfair dismissal claims, rather than employers of less than 100, while Government is setting up the Fair Pay Commission to lower minimum wages, ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake told a conference in Melbourne this morning.
A Queensland employer, backed by the State's peak employer body, has effectively avoided arbitration of a planned union agreement by the State's IRC, after refusing to negotiate with the AMWU.
Some 60,000 public school and TAFE teachers in NSW will on Wednesday vote on whether to accept a new three-year award that provides pay rises of between 9% and 13% over three years.
No delay for IR legislation, says Andrews; Government confirms unemployed to lose benefits for refusing sub-award jobs; Blog obtains WorkChoices call centre script; and Raising minimum wages not the best cure for poverty, says academic.
Only a "limited category" of state public sector employees will be immune from the federal IR laws, and union bids to seek state safe-havens are therefore unlikely to be effective, according to a WA lawyer.
In reasons for decision handed down today, a High Court majority has found the DEWR could lawfully spend public money on the Howard Government's advertising campaign for the second wave IR changes.
In his final annual report before the institution he heads goes under the Federal Government's knife, the President of the AIRC, Justice Geoffrey Giudice, has acknowledged it was difficult to forecast the Commission's role and workload for the year ahead.
